


Mr. Wonderland, James Vega

by TinderWulf



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 15:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16976883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinderWulf/pseuds/TinderWulf
Summary: As humanities Councilor, Shepard is constantly working. But all she asks for is to have work free evenings when James was in port.The Council didn't seem to get the memo.But luckily for Catalina Shepard, James understands the life of leadership.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ReinaOfTheGalaxy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReinaOfTheGalaxy/gifts).



With the holidays fast approaching, Catalina Shepard’s work load had nearly tripled. Why had she thought taking the Council position was in the best interests of her career? For the last week she’d been coming in early and staying late to get her work done so she could enjoy a few days of leave for Christmas. But at this rate, it looked like she was going to die under a mountain of datapads.

“Admiral?”

“Yes, Diala?” Shepard answered, barely looking up to her secretary.

“You asked to be reminded when it was eighteen hundred.”

Well, shit. She hadn’t even made a dent in her stack. Her inbox was overflowing. “Thank you, go ahead and take off.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Diala replied. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Yes, yes she would. Shepard quickly went through the datapads and packed up the most important. With James home on leave, there was no doubt that he was cooking their dinner. He looked so cute in an apron.

* * *

James was exactly where she expected him to be when she got home: In the kitchen cooking their evening meal. And he looked just as adorable as she expected he would. Complete with a little flour on his cheek.

“Hey, handsome,” Shepard flirted. “This is definitely one of my new favorite sights to come home to.”

“Lola,” James replied before smirking.

She sighed when he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. Goddess she’d missed him when he was out playing soldier. She missed the way he smiled and flirted. The way his hands made her feel safe. And most definitely the way his tongue caressed hers. Just as she deepened the kiss, the sound of her office terminal beeped with an incoming call.

Shepard groaned when James pulled back. “Go get the call, Cat. I’ve got to finish dinner anyway.”

Yeah, yeah. Get the work call. Work, work, work. It was like the other Councilor’s had no life at all.

Catalina ended up spending the next half hour on the call, and with two of the datapads she’d brought home. But at least two things were finished up. Just in time for dinner too.

“What did you make us?” She asked just as James was placing food on the bar.

“Steak fajitas with a side of Spanish rice,” he answered.

A smile bloomed as she looked over his work. He’d made the tortillas from scratch. Gods, she loved a man that could cook. And having said man look like he did was just icing on the cake. Mmm, dessert.

“I could just marry you,” Shepard commented as she took the seat James pointed her too.

“You already said you would, Lola,” he told her.

“Think you can cook for me wearing only an apron?” That would definitely help drop the stress of a workday. His cheeks darkened in a blush.

The food itself was divine. The man should really open his own restaurant. She was half-way through her plate, eyes closed as she savored the flavors when her omnitool pinged. The stress that was slowly melting away returned full-force.

“I’m getting really damn sick of this job,” she complained while taking in the message sender. Freaking Sparatus.

“It’s okay, Cat,” James told her quietly.

“No it’s not. I’m out of the office for the night,” she said in frustration. “I just want to spend time with you, not work in my off hours.”

“Being a Councilor is a really big job, Lola,” he reminded her. “An important one.”

She nodded. Of course she agreed, but it was still interrupting the small amount of time she got to have with her future husband. Thank the Goddess she’d fallen for a soldier and not a civilian. Soldiers knew how disruptive this life could be.

Thankfully, it only took about ten minutes to talk with Sparatus before she and James loaded the dishwasher and stored the leftover food. She was so taking that to work tomorrow for lunch.

As much as she wanted to lay in the hot tub and soak her aching muscles, she wanted James more. It would be easy to just strip and have her way with him, but she wanted to go a little slower. Leaving some of her clothes on slowed progression, and made the anticipation a little more exciting.

James’ mouth was gentle against hers. Slow and delectable as he carefully carried her up the stairs to their bed. They didn’t get to take their time very often. Not that she was complaining. Anytime she spent with him was priceless.

Catalina sighed when James lay her on the bed, his tongue more demanding as his hands skimmed her mostly clothed body.

She pulled his shirt up, James breaking the kiss as he pulled his shirt over his head. His dogtags clinked against her breast bone. “I love you,” she whispered, his calloused hand sneaking beneath her shirt.

“I love you too, Lola.”

Just as his hand neared her breast, her omnitool went off with a high priority call. James groaned and removed his hand before flopping back onto the bed. Catalina was near tears in anger. She was so damn tired of being interrupted. All she wanted was a relaxing evening with James.

“What?” She answered roughly.

[My apologies for interrupting your evening again, Admiral. But we need to have an emergency meeting,] Tevos said, her voice gentle and apologetic.

“Yeah, alright,” Shepard replied. It wasn’t like she could say no. “Be there soon.” Ending the call, she rubbed her hands over her face. Defeat, that was what she was feeling. It was such an odd thing to feel. “I’m sorry, James.”

“It’s okay, I get it,” he replied. He hadn’t moved.

“I really hate this job,” she whispered before leaning back to kiss his cheek.

“It’s still better than suicide missions.”

Sometimes she didn’t think so. A good old fashioned suicide mission sounded better than endless meetings and piles of datapads. Plus, she’d get to see James all the time.

It was hard to get into the Christmas spirit when she didn’t get to relax in her time off. Hell, she didn’t even have a tree.


	2. Chapter 2

The meeting ended up taking nearly the entire night with various species’ leadership. The batarians were getting antsy on what was left of their homeworld. Their Ambassador feared all out civil war just for the most basic supplies.

It was a clusterfuck.

But hopefully they’d managed to help aid the batarian people and keep war from happening. All in a day’s work, she supposed.

It was well into the early morning hours when she stumbled through the door. James was already up and prepping coffee. He didn’t look too happy. She couldn’t blame him. Nor would she blame him if he decided her job was too much competition. He deserved better.

“Go get some sleep, I’ll bring some food later,” he told her before planting a chaste kiss on her forehead.

It felt like he was detached and damn it if it didn’t hurt. She didn’t let him see her eyes fill with tears. Instead, she made her way up the stairs her body was almost too tired to climb. As soon as she was in her room, she let the tears fall silently as she stripped.

Pressing the button for lights out, she curled herself around James’ pillow. His scent made her throat burn.

Catalina Shepard, brought down by a desk job.

It was stupid. The only time she truly hated her work was when James was home and it interrupted their short time together. There was still a few workdays left before she took her leave. She hoped James would be patient enough to deal with it.

* * *

Soft Christmas music awakened her. Checking the clock, she realized she’d slept most of the day. James hadn’t woken her up like he said he would. And Christmas music, man she really didn’t care for it. The things she does for people she loves.

Catalina made her way down the stairs, somewhat stiffly. Her body ached from hunching over datapads all night.

“James?” She called out.

“It only took twenty minutes for the music to wake you up,” he teased as he exited the kitchen. “Feeling okay?”

“Sore, but alright.”

“Good, I thought we’d go Christmas shopping.”

She hated shopping almost as much as Christmas music. “We’ll likely be interrupted for some other potential war we have to stop,” she grumbled.

“That’s okay,” he told her as he wrapped her in a hug. “Any time with you is better than none.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I start my holiday leave in two days, but I can’t promise I won’t be called into the office,” she told him.

“No worries,” he told her as he released her. “Coffee?”

* * *

Shopping.

On the Citadel.

It was awful.

Catalina internally sighed when James drug her into another shop. They’d already bought for everyone. And everyone meant _everyone_. Including a bottle of bourbon for Hackett. Shepard was sure James was going to kill her. But after all the interruptions, she supposed she deserved the torture.

They were both loaded down with shopping bags when they finally made it home.

“I’ll cook,” James said as he wrapped his arms around her. “You go work. After dinner we’ll wrap the gifts.”

“I’m terrible at wrapping,” she told him.

“I know,” he teased before planting a chaste kiss on her lips. “Go on.”

Work was never ending. Anytime she got one situation dealt with, she was bombarded with three others. It was stressful on a good day. She felt bad for putting Anderson in the Councilor position. No wonder he chose to stay on Earth during the war.

Tomorrow was her last official full work day before she took her vacation. She was looking forward to spending it with James. Hopefully Kaidan didn’t get called out on a Spectre assignment. Shepard had already requested the other Councilor’s to use their non-human Spectre’s during the human holidays.

As it was, Shepard was having to assign a turian Spectre to take care of pirates disrupting human supply lines. Thankfully, the turian took the orders without issue. Shepard wasn’t sure if it was because she personally gave them or because the turian didn’t care so long as he was working.

Just a day and a half of work and she could get lost in James.

* * *

There were datapad stacks all over her desk. It looked like chaos, but it was organized chaos. The urgent stack was small, but it had to come first. She worked quickly to get through them before moving to the priority stack. It was three times larger than the first stack, but the datapads were normally short in length so they didn’t take long to read.

In fact, she was liking this new system so much, she sent Diala a message so the assistant could get her new system set up in her absence.

Diala, a female turian, had been an odd choice as her secretary. Shepard knew there were rumors of her leaning more towards turians than humans when actually, she treated all equally. But the two former human secretaries had been poorly trained. Their skills were good, but it was their professionalism that had irked Shepard.

They had continuously called her by the wrong rank, or by her name. Normally that wasn’t something Shepard was bothered by, but on top of the constant autograph requests, unexpected family visits (their family), and gossiping Shepard had had enough.

How difficult was it to work when at work?

So Shepard had pulled a list from an employment agency and gave Diala a trial run. That was six months ago and there hadn’t been one request for an autograph.

In fact, Diala had worked out so well, she’d given the woman a paid vacation for the time Shepard was out of the office. Until the day before Shepard’s return. Plus, Shepard had given her a gift card for the arena. Something she’d overheard Diala talking about in the break room. When Diala got to the arena and activated her gift card, she would be notified of a suit of armor and a weapon awaiting her.

It had been fun talking to the arena owner about the gift.

As the work day came to a close, Shepard had successfully taken care of all the immediate work. She was pretty proud of herself.

“Diala?”

“Yes, Admiral?”

“This system is amazing so I’d like to make it a priority after our vacations,” Shepard told her as she stood from her chair and stretched.

“It will be done.”

* * *

With all the priority stuff taken care of, Shepard was able to enjoy a little more time with James. There were still interruptions, but they’d managed to get through dinner without one call or message.

But it was the anticipation of being interrupted that was driving her crazy.

“Just sit down and help me finish wrapping these,” James told her.

“Sir, yes, sir,” Shepard grumbled.

She ended up watching his muscles move as he wrapped gifts on the floor. He was so utterly intoxicating.

Her smirk was mischievous as she watched him. He was so focused on his task, he hadn’t noticed her lack of movement. Or poor wrapping.

Catalina swiftly pulled her tank top and bra up and over her head before tossing them behind her. She leaned back, breasts on display as James continued to wrap. When a few minutes ticked by and he hadn’t looked up, she removed her capri’s and panties without getting up.

Leaning back on her hands, she spread her legs and waited.

“Mierda!” He whispered roughly when he finally looked up. “Lola,” he breathed as he shoved paper out of the way and crawled to her. “We’re never going to get this done.”

“Is that a complaint, Vega?”

“Hell no,” he answered with a smirk.


	3. Chapter 3

The following morning, Shepard awakened to the bright blinking light of her omnitool. The bed next to her was empty.

“Shepard,” she answered sleepily.

[Admiral, Diala has informed us that you have no meetings scheduled for the day.]

“Okay,” she commented. She didn’t have meetings every day. Most of her work was on the dreaded terminal and datapads.

[I only mention this because Diala also said you were caught up on the more pressing matters,] Tevos continued. [We all agreed that coming in for a half-day would be a waste of your time. So we’d like you to go ahead and begin your vacation.]

“Oh,” Shepard said dumbly. “Thank you.”

She hopped out of bed and quickly made her way down the stairs. Cat noticed a small pile of bags near the door. She swallowed thickly, disappointment welling up inside of her chest.

“Coffee, Lola?” James asked.

“You’re getting called out?” She inquired.

“Oh,” his cheeks reddened. “I had meant to move those until you were off of work.”

What the hell was going on? “Well, they just called, I’m officially on vacation.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” she replied. “Now explain the bags. Are you getting deployed or are you leaving me?” Anger welled up inside of her as she crossed her arms under her breasts.

“Neither,” he answered slowly, carefully. “It’s a surprise.”

“A surprise?” She repeated. She didn’t care for surprises.

“Yes, and since your vacation has begun, I’m going to make a call. So go get dressed, we’re going on vacation.” When she didn’t move, he approached her with a serious look. “Por favor?” He knew speaking Spanish made her weak in the knees. This was classic manipulation. “Por favor, mi amor?” _Damn it._

“Fine,” she told him.

* * *

Three hours later she was being led with a blindfold over her eyes. Thus far he’d managed to keep their destination a secret. She didn’t even know what he’d packed in her bag. It was a little endearing, but she was still a little salty. Being blinded, even with someone she trusted, was difficult.

“Stand here, don’t move,” he commanded. “I just need a minute.”

The air was warm and smelled of apple pie. It had been a long time since she’d eaten an apple pie, but she doubted it was real. More than likely it was an air freshener. The air was warm and comfortable. Other than that, she had no clue what was happening.

“Okay, remove the blindfold.”

She had to blink several times for her eyes to adjust to the sudden light before she took in the scene in front of her. Directly in front of her was her gorgeous fiancé in nothing but a santa hat and boxers. Behind him was a large fake tree that had been generously lit and decorated. Beyond the tree, out a large wall of windows, was a winter wonderland. Trees and snow littered the mountain side.

“Oh, James,” she whispered emotionally. “Where are we?”

“Noveria,” he answered.

“You did this for me?” A tear fell against her will as her emotions overwhelmed her.

“Is it okay?” He asked nervously.

“It’s perfect,” she whispered. “Absolutely perfect.”

“For the next two days you are all mine,” he told her with a smirk before pulling her against him. “On Christmas, we’ll join the celebration in the lobby. Maybe kiss under the mistletoe. And if you’re willing, getting married surrounded by friends and family.”

“Quédate en mi Corazon,” she muttered. _Be still my heart._

“You know I love it when you talk like that,” he whispered against her lips. “Is that a yes?”

“Si,” she answered. “Un millón de veces, si.” _A million times, yes._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas!


End file.
